By Zack Anchors

Staff Writer

      South Portland residents voted to
send state-level incumbents back to Augusta on Election Day this year
and voted in line with other Mainers on statewide ballot items.
Fifty-seven percent of registered voters turned out to reelect a
governor, defeat a spending cap, change the makeup of the city council,
and fill one open State Rep. seat with a Democrat.

    The only tightly contested race in the city this
year was for the District Three seat on the City Council, with Jim
Soule edging out incumbent Councilor Rosemarie DeAngelis by less than
400 votes out of a total 10,527 cast.

    Even closer was a city referendum that would have
bonded $500,000 for paving projects throughout the city. The bond was
voted down by around one-and-a-half percentage points.

    Mayor Maxine Beecher received 40 percent more votes
than her challenger Vincent Maietta and won another term as the
District Four city councilor. Democrat Bryan Kaenrath was elected to
his first term as the District 124 State Rep. by a wide margin, while
incumbents Lawrence Bliss and Jane Eberle, representing Districts 122
and 123, also received generous leads in achieving voter’s approval.

    Incumbent Democratic State Senator Lynn Bromley
easily fended off a challenge to her office by current State Rep. Kevin
Glynn.

    Three seats on the city Board of Education were
handed off to Michael Eastman, James Gilboy and Stacy Gato, all in
uncontested races.

    John Baldacci was the Gubernatorial candidate of
choice for 46 percent of South Portland voters, but unlike the state
overall, Independent candidate Barbara Merrill just barely registered
as second in the race instead of Republican Chandler Woodcock. While
Merrill received 20.8 percent of the votes, Woodcock received 20.6
percent and Green Independent Pat LaMarche fell behind with 6.5 percent.

    South Portland’s support for the victories of US
Senator Olympia Snowe and US Rep. Tom Allen to maintain their offices
closely mirrored the statewide results. Both Candidates received about
67 percent of South Portland votes.

    South Portland defeated the Taxpayer’s Bill of
Rights by only a slightly larger margin than the state overall and the
second referendum question on the state ballot was supported by a
margin comparable to the rest of the state. While 59 percent of voters
voted against the spending cap 39 percent favored it.

    Three State Rep. candidates were swept to victory in
South Portland with around 60 percent of their respective district’s
support.

State Rep. Lawrence Bliss defeated his closest challenger, Republican
Paul Nixon, by around 32 percentage points and State Rep. Jane Eberle
defeated Republican Gary Crosby by around 27 percentage points.

    Democrat Kaenrath has won the seat of outgoing
Republican State Rep. Kevin Glynn in his first campaign for public
office.  Kaenrath is a 23-year-old lab assistant at NorDx Labs and
has identified relieving residents’ tax burden and health care reform
as his main priorities in the legislature. He defeated Republican David
Feeney by about a twenty-percentage margin.

    Jim Soule, a former South Portland mayor, will be
returning to the council chambers to represent District Three. Soule
served on the council from 1988 to 1994 and is a business owner.

 Councilor Rosemarie DeAngelis, who is finishing her first term on
the council, lost to Soule by around three percentage points.

      Having been elected to another
term, Mayor Beecher will end her term as mayor and return to a regular
position on the council. After her new term begins the council will
then elect a new Mayor for the city.  Beecher, owner of Maxine’s
Beauty Shop, is finishing her first term representing District Four.